If Taliban terror and photogenic heroin addicts form the popular image of Pakistan today, my own memories were shaped by foot-massage, smoking hashish and the cheerful company of the Sufis.

My photographs from earlier travels through Pakistan and India reflected the photojournalistic conventions of the magazines. But a short documentary film about Pakistan’s islamic Sufis, their understanding of asceticism and its relation to other world religions, provoked a curiosity in me beyond the usual fascination with the exotic. I imagined a series of posed portraits in an uninhabited landscape. The flat, undramatic sunlight of high noon would add its effect to a seemingly anonymous portrait collection. I had to resolve several difficulties financing my project, and it took two years of preparation, before I was on my way to Lahore.

I photographed many Sufis encountered at the many Sufi shrines in towns and villages. Friendly and curious about my endeavor, Sufi elders allowed me to take part in their daily lives. Using gesture and pantomine, it was not difficult to surmount the language barrier. Some invited me to their homes, where food and hashish were shared openly with neighbors, musicians and religious pilgrims. On another occasion, the musicians invited me to a wedding party where they were to perform. After the brief ceremony, guests fired their Kalashnikov submachine guns into the air, to announce the newlyweds to the rest of the village.

While photographing the whirling dervishes and observing their attitudes towards their surroundings, I developed an awareness of the Sufis’ understanding of their faith. One middle-aged woman was particularly striking. I don’t know exactly why, but she seemed to my eyes the most earnest believer of them all.

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Photographs by Corinna Sauer, Sebastián Laraia, Jeffrey Ladd, Holger Biermann, Shinji Abe, Patrick Becker, Jiri Makovec, Dimitri Mellos, Richard Sandler, Gilles Roudière, Roger Minick, Jan Zappner, Georg Knoll, Andreas Pein, Jan Michalko, Jonathan van Smit, Jia Jia Zhang, hannah goldstein and Charlie Jouvet.

at TÊTE art space in Berlin 15 march 2013

artist talks 20 march 2013 – Jan Zappner, Corinna Sauer and Holger Biermann

infos at http://www.tete.nu

opening: 15 march 2013
gallery weekend: 16 / 17 march
artist talks: 20 march

TÊTE
Schönhauser Allee 161A
10435 Berlin / Germany

hannah goldstein
http://www.hannahgoldstein.net

MIRAPROSPEKT group exhibition
Photographs by Corinna Sauer, Sebastián Laraia, Jeffrey Ladd, Holger Biermann, Shinji Abe, Patrick Becker, Jiri Makovec, Dimitri Mellos, Richard Sandler, Gilles Roudière, Roger Minick, Jan Zappner, Georg Knoll, Andreas Pein, Jan Michalko, Jonathan van Smit, Jia Jia Zhang, hannah goldstein and Charlie Jouvet.

The Museum of Photography in Görlitz

Exhibition from 28 july to 24 August 2012

Löbauer Straße 7, 02826 Görlitz/Germany

located at the former ground of the camera
manufacture Ernst Herbst & Firl, producer of
atelier- and travel cameras between 1893 and 1919.

Exhibition of photographs seen on miraprospekt.com by Patrick Becker, Holger Biermann, Georg Knoll, Sebastián Laraia, Jan Michalko, Andreas Pein,
Gilles Roudière and Jan Zappner

The Museum of Photography in Görlitz / Germany

Opening 27 july 2012, 7 pm

Exhibition runs from 28 july to 24 August 2012

at  Galerie des Museums der Fotografie

Löbauer Straße 7,  02826 Görlitz

located at the former ground of the camera
manufacture Ernst Herbst & Firl, producer of
atelier- and travel cameras between 1893 and 1919.

Exhibition of photographs seen on miraprospekt.com by Patrick Becker, Holger Biermann, Georg Knoll, Sebastián Laraia, Jan Michalko, Andreas Pein,
Gilles Roudière and Jan Zappner

> Download PDF

22 June to 16 September 2012

The Albanian Ambassador in Vendome:
> read the article (in french only)

Download PDF

22 June to 16 September 2012

What happens in Albania? The former closed Communist country with its long undiscovered coastline and spectacular Alpine interior retains an air of mystery in the midst of familiar old Europe. Albania is the close neighbour of Italy and Greece but, despite the fall of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago, has kept its secrets from us for too long.

This exhibition combines the work of six photographers based in Berlin, who for three years have been regularly exploring Europe’s least-known nation. They have immersed themselves in its unique and complex society successively moulded by the long period of Ottoman rule, the autocratic grip of communism and today by the excitement of emerging as a new democracy into modern Europe.

The idea of the project was to create a picture diary of a nation familiar by name but whose lifestyle, whose people and whose dreams are only slowly revealing themselves. Each of the photographers has followed his own unique approach to tell an unfolding story of discovery through images and other media.

This long-term project could never produce a straightforward narrative or even a journalistic documentation of a place as intriguing as Albania. Instead we offer six essays that build into a mosaic to capture what we found in a land just a short way away, but far from familiar.

L’ Albanie ? …

Pays autrefois retranché derrière un rideau sombre imposé par l’une des dictatures communistes des plus rigides, l’Albanie tarde toujours à nous livrer sa lumière restée longtemps sous le boisseau. Son littoral pittoresque encore ignoré par le tourisme et l’arrière pays offrant de spectaculaires reliefs montagneux gardent une tonalité mystérieuse au sein de cette vieille Europe qui nous semble pourtant si proche. L’Albanie est voisine de l’Italie et de la Grèce mais, malgré cette proximité et plus de deux décennies après la chute du rideau de fer, elle conserve encore aujourd’hui bien des secrets.

Cette exposition regroupe le travail de six photographes basés à Berlin qui, trois années durant ont régulièrement exploré la nation la plus méconnue d’Europe. Ils se sont immergés dans une société à l’histoire singulière et complexe successivement influencée par une longue domination ottomane, puis par la férule plus récente d’un communisme autocratique et dictatorial et enfin par une fièvre nouvelle d’inclusion dans le monde des démocraties émergentes de la nouvelle Europe.

L’idée du projet est de créer un journal intime, recueil de photographies, d’une nation au nom familier mais dont le quotidien, les gens et les rêves nous échappent encore. Dans cette perspective, chacun des photographes a poursuivi sa propre démarche apportant une vision personnelle et adoptant une technique particulière (format, support, couleur…) pour raconter l’histoire d’une découverte à travers ses images.

Ce projet à long terme ne pouvait pas produire un récit documentaire ou un compte-rendu
journalistique sur un sujet aussi fascinant que l’Albanie. Les photographes nous offrent ici six essais constituant une mosaïque riche et intimiste au fil de la découverte de ce pays proche de nous et cependant loin de nous être familier.

I travelled to Albania, even though I didnt have a connection to either the Eastern Block countries or to the Balkans.  It was just a white spot, and not only on my map but also in my imagination. Directly in front of my house door, in the middle of Europe.

It fascintated me to travel to places that didn’t actually interest me.

That was exactly how I felt.
Like a fish out of water.

It seemed to be a country ruled by a dictator and whose culture seems to have been completely erased. Unable to see something, it left me completely bored.
I saved myself by running from Coffee to köfte, from köfte to Raki and from Raki into my bed and then awoke to start again.
This land seemed to me to be so heavy and still.

I caught a frame, that  pushed me to discover something interesting in the hope that this overall feeling of „nothingness“ would not overtake me.  But in the end, nothing happened and I was worn down, but also sure that something would come again.

contact:   email   web

Group Project: ALBANIA

What happens in Albania? The former closed Communist country with its long undiscovered coastline and spectacular Alpine interior retains an air of mystery in the midst of familiar old Europe. Albania is the close neighbour of Italy and Greece but, despite the fall of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago, has kept its secrets from us for too long.

This exhibition combines the work of six photographers based in Berlin, who for three years have been regularly exploring Europe’s least-known nation. They have immersed themselves in its unique and complex society successively moulded by the long period of Ottoman rule, the autocratic grip of communism and today by the excitement of emerging as a new democracy into modern Europe.

The idea of the project was to create a picture diary of a nation familiar by name but whose lifestyle, whose people and whose dreams are only slowly revealing themselves. Each of the photographers has followed his own unique approach to tell an unfolding story of discovery through images and other media.

This long-term project could never produce a straightforward narrative or even a journalistic documentation of a place as intriguing as Albania. Instead we offer six essays that build into a mosaic to capture what we found in a land just a short way away, but far from familiar.

• Georg Knoll
• Sebastián Laraia
• Jan Michalko
• Andreas Pein
• Gilles Roudière
• Jan Zappner